Finally tried using a rubbing alcohol mix to slow down bleed on colored concrete, worked like a charm

I had a job last month over in Maplewood where we were pouring a pale blue patio. The mix was really wet and the color was bleeding like crazy into the edges. My foreman said to use a simple mix of 1 part 91% isopropyl alcohol to 3 parts water, spray it on the surface after the first trowel. Honestly I thought he was pulling my leg but it actually locked the color in and cut the bleeding by maybe 80%. Has anyone else tried this trick or something similar for controlling bleed on colored slabs?

1 comments

1 Comment

jamie_taylor1mo ago

I tried something similar about two years back on a driveway in Springfield. We were using this dark charcoal mix and the edges looked like a bad tie-dye shirt after the first pass. I used a 50/50 mix of denatured alcohol and water because that's all I had in the truck. It worked fine but the smell was brutal, my helper complained about it for three days straight. Definitely kept the color where it was supposed to be though.